Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Friday slammed House Speaker John Boehner for being “utterly irresponsible” in his approach to resolving the fiscal cliff.

“That’s utterly irresponsible,” Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on CNN’s “Starting Point,” when asked to respond to Boehner, who has said that the ball is now in the court of the Democrats, including President Barack Obama. “That is the Speaker throwing up his hands and abdicating responsibility to come to the negotiating table, to sit with President Obama, work out the remaining really short distance they had to go.”

Wasserman Schultz’s comments came the morning after House Republicans failed to find enough votes to pass Boehner’s “Plan B” legislation designed to avert the fiscal cliff.

“It’s really challenging to understand why, instead of continuing to do the hard work of the last few steps to get to a deal, the speaker instead decided to jam us by putting something on the floor that he couldn’t even get out of his own caucus because they’re so extreme,” Wasserman Schultz said.

She called on Boehner to resume negotiations with the president and Democratic leadership.

“The speaker needs to come back to the table and if the president’s last offer was not enough for him, then, what happens in a negotiation is, he needs to make a counteroffer,” she said.

Wasserman Schultz added that the Democrats are willing to make painful choices and said the Republicans need to “come together” so both parties could reach a deal to prevent the country from going off the cliff.